Good old days - Feb. 24, 2011

125 years ago, February 26, 1886

Colfax engine company will give a ball in Opera Hall Friday, the proceeds to be used in purchasing a firebell and trumpets. Tickets $2.

The log drive for this place has passed the dam at Chase’s mill, and the prospects are now that it will soon be here. Messrs, Bleeker, Spencer & Hoare have six thousand cords of wood in the drive.

Garfield - Messages by telephone are now becoming so common that the boys are trying to arrange for certain hours to talk to their girls in the neighboring towns. But then it lacks that exquisite sweetness described by the bad boy when he first put his arms around his girl.

Palouse City - A lady here, who has reached the shady side of life, has a parrot that swears and a monkey that chews tobacco. She says that she does not miss a husband much.

Talbott & Bragg are getting in lots of new agricultural implements and will make a specialty of Abbott & Co.’s buggies and light wagons.

100 years ago, February 24, 1911

The election on bonding the school district at Endicott Monday carried by a vote of 152 for and 1 against, 63 votes being cast by women. The bonds call for a 12-room $25,000 brick building.

Cement work will be started on Lamont’s water reservoir as soon as the weather moderates. The basin will store 300,000 gallons and its elevation will give pressure for fire fighting.

L.D. Snyder, formerly a saloonkeeper at Palouse, was arrested Saturday by federal authorities while crossing the reservation between Kendrick and Orofino for smuggling booze.

75 years ago, February 21, 1936

Last Saturday night, fire broke out in the office of the Potlatch Yards at Tekoa, destroying the interior finish and breaking the plate glass windows before it could be gotten under control. The volunteer fire department got in good work and applied the water in a very efficient manner, confining the fire to the offices.

An attempt to flood a portion of the Schmuck park athletic field last week to afford ice skating failed because the flooding melted the snow embankments.

Prepared to close deals with land owners, Howard Shrewsbury of the state highway department is in Colfax to purchase rights-of-way for the new state road which will be routed west from the north end of Main street at the Otto Hoeffle place to the Central Ferry highway by way of Mockonema. When negotiations are complete, bids will be called for grading, surfacing and oiling. It is expected work will begin in the next fiscal year, which begins next April 1.

Keyed to the highest possible emotional pitch by a series of pep rallies, the high school Bulldogs defeated rival Endicott Wildcats on the local floor by a score of 26 to 13.

50 years ago, February 23, 1961

If you want to start a real debate at the county basketball championship at Oakesdale this weekend, just insist you know who has a cinch on second place. St. John, champions of the 1960-61 season in the county league, looks like a lock to capture the tournament title.

Clarence D. Parrish, former St. John High school principal who was suspended by the school board last week after disclosure of shortages in student body funds, will be given a hearing on a grand larceny charge in superior court this week.

Tentative approval was given Monday by the city council to changes in downtown parking regulations designed to provide easier parking and stiffer charges for overtime parking. Plans call for installation of a dozen 12-minute meters, which would be painted bright red, would be located four parking spaces from the ends of each block on both sides of Main street. Overtime parking fees would rise from 10 cents to 25 cents.

Sales for the Washington State annual All-Breed Range Bull sale held Tuesday at the Palouse Empire fairgrounds totaled $52,205 for 119 entries for an average price of $447.

25 years ago, February 20, 1986

Two abandoned railroad bridge sites on state highways in Whitman County will be removed this summer, one at Ewan on highway 23 and one south of LaCrosse on highway 26. The standing bridge abutments present traffic hazards.

Efforts by residents of the Parvin Road area to get a left turn lane at the Parvin road intersection with highway 195 have paid off. The state Department of Transportation has modified plans for the final stage of improvements to 195 to allow for a left turn lane at Parvin after receiving a number of petitions.

Rosaline Mae Myers, operator of the Brass Rail in Rosalia, is engaged in a campaign to keep the A liquor license which allows minors in her business. The state liquor control board has fielded a complaint that food sales volume in the Brass Rail is too low to qualify the business for an A license.

Monte Elder of Garfield drove through snow drifts to deliver the first buttercup of the season. He and his dog Mandy found the buttercup above Lasz fishing pond between Garfield and Elberton.

10 years ago, February 22, 2001

An inmate who didn’t come back to the Whitman County jail after getting a haircut in 1994 pleaded guilty in superior court Wednesday to a charge of escape. He was serving a 275-day sentence for violating probation when he disappeared. He was allowed temporary release from the jail and given $10 to go to the Curry Comb for a haircut.

The debate of the trees sprouted again Tuesday night at the Colfax city council when the city officially received a Corps of Engineers report on the condition of the 35-year-old flood control channel system in Colfax. The report was expected to get a critical review this year because Councilman Harold Herman questioned whether or not trees growing along the side of the channel were damaging it.

A hearing date has been set by county commissioners to consider repeal, extension or modification of applications for wireless communications facilities.